Sherlock at Work

Sherlock was established to provide managed services to meet the secure computing and data management needs of our academic, government, and industry customers. Our approach involves building the solution, managing the software and hardware platform, and the necessary management processes that govern it. Our comprehensive solution portfolio is a proven resource, and we strongly believe our intangibles, namely our superb team, experience, and knowledge, provide our customers with an edge. We work together with our customers to jointly solve problems and create an environment that not only meets, but surpasses, their needs.

Our Evolution

The San Diego Supercomputer Center recognized a need to provide secure data management and computing capabilities to the University of California (UC) and academic, government and industry partners. As such, it embarked on a journey to establish Sherlock. Sherlock debuted in November 2008, and launched its flagship service Sherlock Cloud, an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) capability that complied with the Federal Information System Management Act (FISMA), rendering it the largest FIMSA-certified cloud within the UC system. The cloud infrastructure was further developed in accordance with hundreds of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) controls governing system access, information control, and management processes; it also addressed federal Cloud First requirements.

After working a few years with data governed by FISMA requirements, the Sherlock team decided to parlay this knowledge and expertise and embark on an innovative journey to expand its cloud offering to include a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant cloud environment, a niche and unique offering within the UC. This expansion strengthened the Sherlock Cloud infrastructure for UC campuses, divisions, and researchers. The Sherlock team was recognized as an SDSC “Center for Excellence” for secure HIPAA- and FISMA-compliant managed cloud services.

The Sherlock team further broadened Sherlock Cloud to include a CUI-compliant environment. This expansion was in response to the federal government’s release of NIST 800-171, which requires non-federal entities that receive non-classified information (i.e., CUI) from the federal government to implement a variety of security protections when processing, storing, transmitting, and using CUI in non-federal information systems.

The Sherlock team has been deploying secure, compliant, end-to-end Cloud solutions to support critical applications including cancer research, detecting and preventing medical fraud, and enterprise risk management for over a decade. These applications have relied on technologies ranging from the traditional data warehouse to the more recent big data platforms, Software as a Service (SaaS) capability leveraging container technology, business intelligence and analytics solutions, and IOT/streaming solutions. Operating these applications and the underlying platforms requires organizations to be agile and visionary in this arena to grow with the ever-changing technological, regulatory and unique customer requirements, while simultaneously ensuring data security and privacy. To that effect, the Sherlock team partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to duplicate its managed services in the AWS Cloud and establish a hybrid cloud solution that leverages scale, automation, and the pipeline of enterprise applications and tools that public Clouds offer.

As we look into the future, Sherlock is launching a series of innovative solutions under its Innovation Accelerator Platform series. These services will offer fit-for-purpose, turnkey solutions spanning big data management, analytics and data science.